Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Bacteriophages, also called phages, may have a lysogenic cycle or a lytic cycle. Lysogenic phages are phages that can enter one of two alternative paths when infecting a cell: their DNA can integrate into the host DNA and replicate along with it, creating a lysogen; or the lytic cycle can occur instead. In the lytic cycle, once the phage has infected a bacterial cell, many copies of phage DNA are made, followed by synthesis of many phage capsids. The DNA is packaged in the capsids, the cell is lysed (broken open and destroyed) by phage enzymes, and the new phages are released. Lysogenic phages are sometimes called temperate phages. By contrast, a lytic phage is only capable of the lytic cycle, i.e., bacterial cells are lysed and destroyed after immediate replication of the viral particle and the new phages are released to find new hosts. Lytic phages do not create a lysogen. Lytic phages are sometimes called virulent phages.
Using recombinant DNA technologies, bacteriophage DNA can be manipulated to result in the expression of reporter genes in target, infected bacteria. Such methods have the potential of being very useful in detection assays. The lysogenic bacteriophage ΦV10 infects and reproduces in the pathogenic E. coli O157:H7. There remains a need for the large scale propagation of phages in non-pathogenic E. coli, thereby avoiding the safety and security risks of propagation in the pathogenic E. coli O157:H7. As contemplated herein, such large scale propagation of phages may enable the creation of anti-bacterial polymers for applications such as packaging materials for food or implantable medical devices. In addition, contemplated herein are methods for detection of E. coli in samples using bacteriophage immobilized on polymer film, thereby avoiding the traditional need of various reagents for detection.